


Crashdown

by TheKnitterati



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Attraction, Captain Ben Solo, Lieutenant Armitage Hux, Lust at First Sight, M/M, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed, Tropes, Tumblr, Water
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 00:38:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15376890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKnitterati/pseuds/TheKnitterati
Summary: Canon divergent.Ben Solo does a bit of pilot work via his father's famed ship, the Millennium Falcon. He takes a commission to transport one Lt Armitage Hux back to Arkanis Academy after his mentor has to return prematurely, leaving him stranded. Should be an easy job, a quick run and money in the bank.Except the old ship is not at her best at the moment, and suffers a breakdown.





	Crashdown

**Author's Note:**

> Week Two of the KyluxXoXo Summer Fest (Sweet Donuts)- board prompts were: Bed Sharing, Heat, and Water.
> 
> I had to cave in and make this two chapters because I can't seem to shut the frack up. Watch the tags and the rating, I rather hope to change things. *waggles eyebrows*

“When you say we are having a little bit of engine trouble, what you mean is....?” 

With his upper body deep inside an access panel and half tangled in wires, Ben Solo knew he couldn’t be seen by his inquisitive passenger. So he squeezed his brown eyes tightly closed as he counted to ten before answering. 

“Mr. Hux, sir. As I had said before...”

“Lieutenant.”

“What?” Ben called over his shoulder, wondering how this guy didn’t grasp that he could not hear him over the electrical hum. 

“Lieutenant.”

Ben banged the back of his head, withdrawing quickly from the access area to face his troublesome charge. 

“Ow, blast it. What are you saying?” He fired at the slim man before him, as he ran his big palm over the back of his head, almost hoping it would come away bloody. Maybe a nice gory head wound would be enough to keep him away long enough for Ben to complete the repairs. 

“Lieutenant; it’s my rank. Not Mister. Is your head alright? I’m just trying to understand how bad the issue is and consequently how long the delay will be. Do you even know where we are? I haven’t been able to get any kind of transmission out on my personal comm...do you think the ship’s comm system would have better luck? I tried to spot it from the pilot’s seat but to be honest, that cockpit looks pieced together from stars-knows-how-many ships. Obviously there must be a ship’s comm, but I’ll be buggered if I can find it. How OLD is this craft, anyway? I assume she has had all the proper checks and maintenance to be safe for hyperspace even though this is a short journey? I’d hate to think you deceived me into thinking this craft was spaceworthy when it was actually just a junky old smuggler barge going to pieces...” 

Ben’s mouth had slowly slid open and was left hanging now that Lieutenant Hux had finally dribbled to a stop. 

Hux’s bright green eyes flitted all over Ben’s face, growing more concerned by the moment. 

“Captain Solo? Are you quite alright? How hard did you strike your head?” His hand was on Ben’s cheek before Ben could rear away. 

_His hand is so warm, so gentle_... Ben squashed that train of thought as fast as he’d squashed several similar ones upon meeting his passenger. Thoughts about his pale porcelain skin; thoughts about that hair that even in the darkened cantina had blazed like the sun setting; thoughts about the smattering of freckles near his collarbone, and where else on his body freckles might be discovered; thoughts about whether or not Ben could get his hands to meet if he had them wrapped around that slender waist...

Kriffing hell, he was still slack jawed and staring, and Hux was still petting his cheek. He was biting his lip now too, clearly nervous, and it was not helping Ben stay on track. 

_‘Remember, he just insulted the Falcon. And you, for that matter,’_ a small voice in his head said, trying to pry him from his stupor.

“Ahhh..” Ben began, sounding rather stupid. He cleared his throat and gently pulled Hux’s hand off his face. “Sorry. I’m fine. No major injuries. I am just trying solve this engine problem and get you to the academy as promised, Lieutenant.” 

A rosy pink flush crept from under Hux’s collar up over his cheeks, and he cast his eyes to the floor, abashed. 

“Right. Well, if I can be of any assistance...” He offered, before wandering back to the upper portion of the ship. 

=====

Pacing around what served as a common space onboard the Millennium Falcon, Armitage Hux berated himself internally. 

_‘Idiot. Not only could he karking care less what your rank is, you said some truly terrible things about his ship. I’m sure that’s not on. And let us not forget you made him crack his skull. You have probably concussed him, ruined a simple passenger run, insulted his ship and questioned his honesty. Yeah, he is not ever going to look you in the eyes again, let alone look at you in any other way again.’_

Hux paused in his tracks. 

_‘Not that he’s looking now, I guess. He seemed to completely disassociate when I was speaking earlier. At least he didn’t take a swing at me for touching him.’_

He sighed and flung himself onto a bench seat along the sidewall of the ship. 

His mentor, Rae Sloane, had suggested he look for a ride back to the academy when she was called back early from break. It was a short jaunt; the bulk of it was via hyperspace and took less than a day. She pointed him at the messaging systems for these sorts of arrangements and told him to have at it. After some very sketchy interviews with other options, he’d agreed to meet Ben Solo in a local and very public cantina; check him over and determine his creep factor.

For Hux, it was lust at first sight. He spotted a tall, broad man, grinning widely at the barkeep, and Hux began mentally pleading with any and all archaic deities he could dredge up in his memory to please oh please let that be his pilot. 

Luck was on his side, as it turns out. Capt. Solo - who insisted on being called Ben - had huge liquid brown eyes, quite possibly the most distracting lips in the galaxy, and loose, long, absolutely-not-academy-regulation waves of dark hair.

Hux was smitten down to his toes before they had even agreed to a price. 

At the academy, Hux didn’t really suffer from attractions. He noticed the others there, of course. He’d had many a grope session or dalliance with both types of partners...higher AND lower ranks.

That was more of a power game and experience builder though, which is why Hux wouldn’t be able to accurately say how many of his experiences were male, female, or identified differently altogether. It wasn’t about attraction so much as it was about exchanging favors, and furthering one’s own carnal education for later use.

He had never been struck by someone the way he was struck by Ben. It was exciting and frankly terrifying all at once. He liked looking at him. He liked listening to the timbre of his voice. For once, he was interested in a dalliance where he would most likely gain nothing but pleasure, and that sounded like the best idea ever.

=====

“Kriffing piece of backwater scrap, are you kidding me?” Ben smacked his open palm against the coolant pipe he was draped over as he leant into a floor access panel. 

“What’s wrong?” Hux asked. He was standing nearby, under the pretense of being available to pass tools over if Ben needed something. In reality, he’d been admiring how Ben’s thigh muscles flexed to keep him balanced and safe from tumbling head first into the access pit. The view of his firm arse, clad in tight fitting dark trousers, was equally enticing.

With a growl, Ben pulled himself out of the pit and stood. 

“Well...what’s wrong is that nothing here looks wrong.” Ben scowled and toyed with the spanner between his fingers. 

“Ermmmm...” Hux really didn’t know what to say to that, but he wanted to be helpful. Mostly he wanted to keep following Ben around the ship. 

Ben sighed, and dropped onto a nearby bench. 

“We started losing power shortly before I set us down on this moon. Something isn’t working in the recharge circuit, or it’s overheating, or I’m not sure what. I do know the Quadex isn’t getting a full charge so the motivators aren’t turning over, so we can’t take off.

“Right now the important systems are working; we have enough juice for the oxygenators and air recyclers, lights are on, heaters are going, water pumps are circulating. I’m just not sure how much time I have to figure out the problem before systems start going offline.”

“Well maybe they won’t?”

Ben shook his head. “That would be great, but truly it’s a case of when and not if. Without recharge online, things will just fail out as the energy load drains more and more.”

By the time Ben had finished speaking, Hux was feeling a bit wobbly. He slumped onto the bench beside Ben. 

“So we are on a moon that we cannot lift off from. Night is falling. Our lights, our heat, even our air may quit on us at any time. If that all stays perfect, we could still lose the water pumps and just slowly dehydrate. Any other wonderful news to report, Captain Solo?”

The tips of Ben’s ears where they peeked from beneath his hair had gone red. 

“Oh kriffing hells. What is it. No rations? Something outside? Oh stars, is there..are there creatures out there? What kind are they? Biters? Fliers? Are they big?”

“Hux...” Ben interjected.

“...does this ship have external weaponry? I mean of course it must, but is it just the two laser cannons I saw? How about shielding, is there shielding?” 

“Hux.”

“I think we should discuss a strategy to repel them immediately. You know, teach them right away that this ship is not to be trifled with. Scare them off. Should buy us some time...”

“HUX.” Ben’s voice cut through the babbling, however what really made Hux stop talking was the shocking sensation of Ben clapping his hand firmly onto Hux’s thigh. 

Ben chuckled, a glorious rumble from deep in his broad chest. 

“When you build up steam, it’s awful hard to get you to put the brakes on, huh?” He squeezed the trapped thigh lightly, and Hux struggled to keep his breath from becoming too engaged and eager. 

Ben smiled, and pulled his hand away. Hux immediately felt bereft of his warmth, and had to school his features to neutral lest his disappointment be on display. 

“There are no creatures; we aren’t in danger. It’s just uhhhh...awkward. Well. You know this trip was supposed to be a short jaunt to Arkanis to drop you at the academy; I was going to have you there in time for supper. Unfortunately that’s not happening now.”

Hux drew his brows together in a confused frown.

“It’s a military academy. I assure you I have been trained to survive missing a meal. In any case I am fairly certain I still have a handful of nutri-ration bars in my bag. I can’t say they are delicious but they will certainly keep us from starving during the night.”

Two bewildered brown eyes stared at Hux, then he saw comprehension bloom like a flower across Ben’s face. 

“Ha! No, it’s not related to supper. Although now that we mentioned food, I realize I’m hungry. We should break out those ration bars if you are offering, I don’t think I have anything packed. It’s just... the Falcon doesn’t have a passenger cabin. Only the one for the pilot. Obviously I will set you up in there to sleep. I just...I’m sorry, it’s a bit of a mess, I wasn’t expecting an overnight guest, haha...”

“But where will you sleep?” Hux nearly bit his lip trying to suck the words back in but it was too late. 

“Oh, I’ll be fine in the cockpit. I’ve slept in there plenty of times.” 

=====

Hux emerged from the tiny en suite refresher wearing a loose pair of sleep pants and an oversized academy t shirt one of his ‘experiences’ had left behind. 

Ben’s cabin on the Falcon was not large, but it was pleasant. Despite Ben’s comments, it was even tidy, although Hux had seen the overstuffed laundry hamper in the closet. His bookshelf was like a quick reference guide to the man himself; starship maintenance manuals butted up against books on interplanetary philosophy, tattered copies of holodrama style action tales shared shelves with encyclopedic texts on famous battles between the Empire and the Rebellion. 

There were marks on the wall where what appeared to be a double rack bunk bed once was. Now a fairly large bed filled the space. Which made sense, given that Captain Solo was much too tall to squash into a standard bunk. 

Hux sighed and sank to the floor, to perform his nightly sequence of stretches. Legs crossed, he began to roll his shoulders, forward and back. 

He had his legs stretched out in front of him, head bent over onto his knees and hands wrapped around the arches of his feet when Ben entered the room. 

“Just want to grab a change of clothes and clean...my....teeth....” 

Hux turned his head and looked up at him. 

“Okay, should I wait outside?” 

Ben licked his lips, his eyes roaming all over Hux and not settling anywhere. 

“Uh. No.” That tongue peeked out again and swiped over his lips. “No no, you’re good, I’m just gonna grab this... and...” Ben grabbed up a small bundle from a side drawer and slipped into the refresher, the door closing with a click behind him.

Hux stood, folded at the waist, and laid his palms on the floor. This was the final stretch in his series, and he couldn’t focus at all; his mind was utterly consumed with thoughts of Ben undressing just behind the door...so close...

His thoughts were interrupted by an electrical buzzing sound, which rumbled louder and louder, then cut off sharply. At the same moment the lights did. 

“Kriffing hell!” Ben’s voice boomed out from the ‘fresher. 

“Guess the lighting failed...” Hux offered cheekily, as he stood straight. He heard the refresher door bang open. 

“Funny, Lieutenant. I have a flashlight in the bedroom there, just need to find it.” There was the sound of shuffling steps, slow and very tentative. “It’s really dark, hells.” 

Hux yelped as a hand swiped over his chest. 

“Shit, sorry. I can’t see. At least I know where you are now.” Ben let his hand slip down Hux’s arm, trailing his fingertips over the inside of Hux’s wrist, raising gooseflesh in his wake. He twined his fingers together with Hux’s, gripping gently. 

“I’ll just keep hold of you if that’s ok, so I don’t startle either of us again.” 

Hux was grateful for the darkness that concealed his grin, and his quickly reddening cheeks. 

A moment later, the room flared with chemiluminescence from a glow lamp. Ben held it in one hand, his other still holding onto Hux. 

“Well done Captain Solo! Ahhhh…have you any more of those? Or flashlights, even?” 

“I realize it’s been a long and stressful day, so maybe you have forgotten. I think, however, that I asked rather politely for you to call me Ben at some point.” Hux’s heart gave a powerful thump as a playful smile spread over Ben’s face, barely illuminated by the glow lamp.

“Right. Ben. Sorry. Does that mean you are willing to call me Armitage?" 

"Armitage. Mmm. I like it. It's sophisticated. Armitage." 

Desire flared in Hux's belly, spreading through his limbs like wildfire. This was so new to him, this wanting. The ache it created was both wonderful and terrible. He stifled a sigh. 

" So…flashlights, Ben?”


End file.
